Much has been written about the charms of the "decadent"
bijin print style of the Bunka (1804-1817) and early
Bunsei Periods, but far less about its actor prints.
And that which has been said is not generally flattering.

First Publication: 2003
Latest Update: 2/20/2014

Take, for example, this quote from Jack Hillier's
"The Japanese Print, A New Approach":

"By 1810, Toyokuni's theatrical prints were a travesty
of his fine earlier designs, the attitudes false, the
features drawn to a formula of haggard ferocity, the
hands and feet afflicted with arthritis...."

"But," Hillier notes, "they clearly had a ready sale,
and what to us are their glaring faults must have
appealed as virtues to the Kabuki follower of the time."
(138)

How are we to understand this contradiction between the
artistic inferiority Hillier finds in these works and
their tremendous popularity in their own day?
For Hillier, the answer is "the failing standards of the
class of theatre goer and print-patron," the "coarsened"
tastes of the time. A reasonable enough explanation, but
is it the only one? Or even correct?

Action, Power and Drama

For what the Bunka Era kabuki print gives up in subtlety,
poise and grace, it gains in raw power, action, and
melodrama - and while these may not be the values that
Hillier holds most high, they are in fact the ideals of
the contemporary theater that these prints aim to
represent.

The false attitudes and haggard ferocity Hillier
describes are not in fact symptomatic of Toyokuni's
loss of artistic integrity, but rather the expressive
faces of the actors at a point of extreme dramatic
intensity, their features drawn and eyes bulging.

The Mie Misunderstanding

And those arthritic feet and hands? Not a failure of
Toyokuni's brush, but rather the kabuki mie, in
which the actor poses in a "still," eyes crossed, feet
splayed or bunched, hands twisted up in the air to show
the intense emotions of the moment.

As for the formula, there is absolutely no question that
pre-1818 kabuki prints by Toyokuni and his followers were
drawn according to one - but then, what period of kabuki
depiction wasn't? Whereas critics like Hillier appreciate
the stylization of Torii School kabuki formula, with its
exaggerated facial features, overblown gestures and
distorted limbs, the same sort of stylization is for them
a serious flaw in nineteenth century prints.
Why the aesthetic double standard?

Historical Importance and Aestethic Judgement

Of course the time in which a work was made, its relation
to the works made before and after it, in what way it
pioneers and acts as a precursor, has everything to do
with the evaluation of its historical importance, and
this evaluation has an influence on our aesthetic
judgement as well.

In the case of Torii prints, the gourd legs and unnatural
features are appreciated as an initial attempt to define
the nature of kabuki, whereas with Bunka Era kabuki
non-naturalistic stylization is seen as a regression, a
failure of the standards of realism which the Katsukawa
Group had set for kabuki depiction.

But is that the full story? Why should the evaluation of
historical importance have an influence on our aesthetic
judgement? Does the development of ukiyo-e necessarily
have to be linear, from stylization to realism, or can
we not envision other patterns? For example, the pendulum
shift in ukiyo-e between the soft and bravura styles,
from Kiyomasu to Masanobu, Sukenobu to Settei, Shunei to
Shuntei , has long been recognized.

A similar oscillation between realism and stylization can
be traced over the course of ukiyo-e's development, and
Bunka Era kabuki prints represent stylization at one of
its peaks.

The Charm of Bunka Era Kabuki

Personally, though my interest in the genre drops off
sharply as the Bunsei Era (1818-1830) progresses
(but it goes without saying that there are exceptions
here too), I find the overblown style Bunka Era kabuki
prints of great charm.

The enlarged, endearing eyes of Iwai Hanshiro peering
out coyly at the viewer, the grand gestures of Ichikawa
Danjuro in a mie, the splayed fingers of a
villain spread like claws before his face, the bulging
pupils of an enraged
samurai,
protruding all the way out of their sockets - all aim to capture the drama of the
Kabuki theater.

Cartoonish at its worst, sublime at its best, the
conventions of Bunka Era kabuki are unique, and limited
to about a decade in the 250 - year history of ukiyo-e.
I think perhaps this taste is not for everyone, and
historically, in fact, soon gave way to the more
restrained style of the Bunsei Era.

But for the decade in
which this style dominated, a number of appealing and
singular works were produced, which grow on the viewer
the more one sees of them.

A Last Breeze of Classic Ukiyo-e

But more than just this style, Bunka Era kabuki prints
represent the last breath of the classic ukiyo-e.

The soft, mellow colors, the wonderful line work, the
tight, artistic control that characterizes ukiyo-e at its
height can still be found in works of the Bunka Era.
The artistic conventions and their purposes are quite
different, and we cannot find here the same restraint or
subtlety of 1790s ukiyo-e, but many of the qualities that
make works of the 'Golden Age' of Japanese printmaking
so irresistible continue into the subsequent century,
unbroken.

What endears the Bunka Era print to me, first and
foremost, are those natural pigments, so remarkably mixed
by the printers to make a palette of rare shades, placed
side by side in gorgeous color harmonies.
Complementing these shades are the lines that outline the
figures, frequently showing the work of the brush in
broad and thin modulations, enhancing the drama with
sudden "cut" strokes or gracefulness with full, gentle
curves.

These lines and colors alone make the Bunka Era print,
regardless of its subject, of interest and artistic
attraction to the viewer.

Concentration on Figure

The Bunka Era figure, for example, whatever the faults
Hillier found with it, is still capable of standing alone
against a blank ground and holding its own, for the sole
interest of its lines and colors.

The same is seldom true of the actor thereafter, who
almost always appears in a setting of some sort, or at
least against a colored, geometric or textual ground,
unable to fill the print and command attention on its
own.

These figure-on-plain-ground prints have a certain
existential quality, of the human being alone, removed
from all circumstances and context, expressing its nature
through the posture of the body, the expression of the
face, and the selection of the garments - as well as with
the nuances of line and color with which it is created.

Moreover, the very format forces the designers to
concentrate on the figure, to make it worthy of being the
sole point of attention for the viewer, so that every
line, and color, the very contrast between the figure
and the negative space surrounding, counts in constituting
the dramatic or psychological portrait of the actor.

This concentration frequently results in quality,
expressive works of high interest, which capture
something of the nature of the role.

From Subtlety to the Melodramatic

In sum, the Bunka Era is a transitional period between
the old, classic style of ukiyo-e, and the new, nineteenth
century canon to follow, combining much of the grace,
skillfulness and care of "golden age" prints with a new,
explicit, melodramatic and sometimes even violent set of
representational conventions.

Although the overblown kabuki style of the Bunka Era,
with bug-eyed actors in paroxysms of emotion, was not to
be continued in nineteenth century kabuki depiction, the
exchange of subtlety for grand gesture, quiet mood for
active, is typical of the movement of the age.

The Bunka Era kabuki print provides a unique opportunity
to see this transformation occurring in subject matter in
the medium of the classical-style color and line, creating
an unusual mix of the extremity and restraint.

Good Prints for a Bargain

Although the finest works of this period, such as
Kunisada's mica background prints of actors, have joined
the "unattainable" stars of ukiyo-e, there yet remain
many fascinating works from this period, typically at
prices from $50 to $300.

In fact, as many dealers do not distinguish early works
by Kunisada from the remainder of his oeuvre, his fine
Bunka Period pieces are available at roughly the same
prices as his later prints. When the recognition will
come I cannot say, but surely as these prints are singled
out and understood, they will be further appreciated and
grow in value.

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